A Silent Attacker: Lead Poisoning in Dandora’s Children

A child in the West playing in an older home could be exposed to lead poisoning from lead-based paint, lead in the soil from gasoline, or from contaminated water. A child in Dandora doesn’t have to worry about lead-based paint in the home, because home is most likely a makeshift structure constructed from cardboard or aluminum found in the dumpsite. While a child in the US or Europe plays with toys strictly regulated to prevent choking or adverse health effects, a child in Dandora searches through garbage for something to eat. Both these children could be exposed to lead in their lifetime, but the responses, like their locations, are worlds apart.

A 2007 United Nations Environment Programme study reported that 50% of children tested in Dandora had blood lead levels at or above the internationally recognized level; lead poisoning is known to damage the central nervous system and brain as well as contribute to kidney failure. The internationally recognized blood lead level is 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood; in the US “blood lead level of concern” has been lowered to 5 micrograms per deciliter, reflecting the growing understanding of how lead absorption affects bodily functions and development. In Dandora, some children have blood lead levels of 29 or 32 micrograms per deciliter, more than 6 times the level considered acceptable in the US. Since lead poisoning is linked to behavioral problems and learning issues, it becomes not just an individual challenge, but a public health one.

The UN study of Dandora also found that almost 50% of children tested had respiratory problems from breathing toxic gases from the industrial, plastic, and metal waste in the dump. Between 2009 and 2011, more than 9,000 cases of respiratory infections were treated at the Kariobangi Catholic Mission Clinic near the dump. Cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, various skin conditions, and diarrheal diseases race unchecked through the site and surrounding communities, and there is no sanitation in Dandora, no waste management, and few toilets, leading to increasingly dangerous health conditions.

The Blacksmith Institute, in its report, “The World’s Worst Pollution Problems: Assessing Health Risks at Hazardous Waste Sites,” calculates the impact of pollution in “Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs),” which incorporate the total number of life years lost due to early death caused by disease. Industrial and municipal dump sites represent the fifth highest hazard to health, resulting in the loss of over 1.2 million DALYs. According to the report, the pollutant most commonly found in polluted areas is lead, resulting from industrial waste, lead-acid battery manufacturing or recycling, and mining processes. Just as it has been documented in the population of Dandora, the Blacksmith Institute report warns that lead poisoning affects brain and kidney function, and since lead is an element, it cannot be broken down and so continues to build up in the body as a person is exposed to it. Children absorb nearly five times as much lead as adults, and so are at particular risk of lead poisoning, as can be seen by the UN study from Dandora.

These health conditions do not just harm those living in the dump site itself, but affect the population of surrounding slums, since the Nairobi River runs beside the dumpsite and carries pollutants downstream into surrounding communities. Children play in the dump, people of all ages sort through the garbage without gloves or any other protection, and chemical and industrial waste frequently burns in the mountains of trash, releasing toxic fumes and smoke into the air. As 2,000 tons of waste, from nearly 4 million inhabitants of Nairobi, continue to be dumped in Dandora every day, the health problems persist and continue to affect thousands of people in the poorest communities in the country. This is not an individual issue, this is a public health issue, a human rights issue, and a representation of the disparity between the “haves” and the “have nots.” While children in the US are protected from lead poisoning by regulations on products, children in Dandora live and play in a garbage dump, exposed to every disease and pollutant. Simply because of where they were born, these children face extreme hardships and obstacles to a healthy life. But that can change with a comprehensive and coordinated effort by the Kenyan government and international partners committed to building a better future for the people of Dandora.